Incanters in Society

mhd · 05-06-2017, 03:00 AM

I recently introduced Incanters to my fantasy game, which up to now was purely Sorcery based (not even default Magic). And I'd have to agree that point by point it would be more powerful. Preparation has its advantages, and the spell construction method allows some tricks that are way more expensive to reproduce via Powers.

But I pretty much went for PK's reasoning: It's an "Unusual" background, and highly based on skills. And IMHO skills are a bit harder to get than most other advantages on a point by point basis. For a 20-30 point advantage, you might just need to be born lucky (literally sometimes), whereas having the same amount in a skill would require a huge amount of experience.
So raising your Sorcerous Empowerment might just "happen" or be caused by some relatively simple initation rituals, whereas putting in another 4 points into Thaumatology might require years of study.
Points being a (rough) balancing mechanic for adventurers, nothing more.

From a pure background perspective, my Incanters are actually Johnny-come-latelys. The Sorcerers were there first and have a large library of spells and traditions to build upon. Incanters are the non-talented people trying to reverse engineer bits and pieces of that. The odd guild of "scroll scribblers" trying to peek behind the curtains.
Most of them specialized in just one approach. My local "Wizard's guild" is doing it the way PK mentions: All done via Symbol Drawing, with masters having access to one or two Path skills.
Plus "low" alchemists and shamans.

05-06-2017, 03:00 AM	#5
mhd Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls	Re: Incanters in Society I recently introduced Incanters to my fantasy game, which up to now was purely Sorcery based (not even default Magic). And I'd have to agree that point by point it would be more powerful. Preparation has its advantages, and the spell construction method allows some tricks that are way more expensive to reproduce via Powers. But I pretty much went for PK's reasoning: It's an "Unusual" background, and highly based on skills. And IMHO skills are a bit harder to get than most other advantages on a point by point basis. For a 20-30 point advantage, you might just need to be born lucky (literally sometimes), whereas having the same amount in a skill would require a huge amount of experience. So raising your Sorcerous Empowerment might just "happen" or be caused by some relatively simple initation rituals, whereas putting in another 4 points into Thaumatology might require years of study. Points being a (rough) balancing mechanic for adventurers, nothing more. From a pure background perspective, my Incanters are actually Johnny-come-latelys. The Sorcerers were there first and have a large library of spells and traditions to build upon. Incanters are the non-talented people trying to reverse engineer bits and pieces of that. The odd guild of "scroll scribblers" trying to peek behind the curtains. Most of them specialized in just one approach. My local "Wizard's guild" is doing it the way PK mentions: All done via Symbol Drawing, with masters having access to one or two Path skills. Plus "low" alchemists and shamans.